‘Everyone left the company on my first day’: New hire gets left in charge of IT systems after everyone quits

Author image for Eleonora Bader
Eleonora Bader
Jul 29, 2023 1:00 PM EDT

When getting hired by a company, the last thing you'd imagine to happen would be everyone leaving on your first day. But that's what happened to u/mTbzz, who was hired as a sysadmin. This company was using some pretty obscure software from IBM, so OP was walked through it. He even met the other 2 senior sysadmins and they had a good talk about experiences and the job. The next day OP found out that all three of these people would no longer be working at the company, and he was left with systems he didn't know how to maneuver, with no accounts, and no manual.

The absurdity doesn't end there… OP was told that he must call ISP to negotiate a new deal and switch their internet company in order to save money. This was never in OP's job description, and OP promptly told his boss that they should request that someone else do it. Tough luck, as OP's boss didn't give in. Scroll down to continue reading about the unraveling of events.

For more, here are customers who attempted to get their waiter fired after he laughed at their requests.

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  • 01
    Font - Posted by u/mTbzz 1 day ago 2 Everyone left the company in my first day
    via u/mTbzz
  • 02
    Font - So... after doing pentesting for some time I moved and started a regular sysadmin position in a multinational in EU, i filtered other companies because i thought this one was big enough and i would have space to grow here.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 03
    Font - In my first day a sysadmin walked me through all the systems and stuff he was doing, the company uses some very obscure software from IBM for some reason, he told me they switched from IBM Notes to Outlook last year, and some users were still using it, he showed me some AS400
    via u/mTbzz
  • 04
    Font - machines that were managed i meet the other 2 senior externally, sysadmins and we had a good day talking about experiences and the job. The next day i was dumbfounded to learn that the person i was with yesterday was on his last day, and
    via u/mTbzz
  • 05
    Font - the other two guys went into vacation... I was alone with systems i didn't know, no accounts, and had no control over, not even a manual or a word doc with some texts... We don't even have an IT share with stuff, installers or whatever, NONE!... Turns
    via u/mTbzz
  • 06
    Font - out the two seniors took the vacations and put the 15 days resignation letter, at the same time. D k move tbh. i call this a d :k move, not because they wanted to leave for a
    via u/mTbzz
  • 07
    Font - better job, just tell me you're leaving as a colleague and explain more about the systems i'll have to manage. Two weeks later i didn't even had an AD account, as the international IT director is always OOO, and the rest of admins needs permission to create my account.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 08
    Font - Two months now, I have a regular user account, (an admin told me i have to *earn* the admin? whatever that means) I have to support 5 EU countries ~300 users, 20 very obscure systems that for some reason each office have their own CRM and software... I'm basically a
    via u/mTbzz
  • 09
    Font - middleman, the users tells me they're blocked and i talk to the software vendor to unblock them. I can't even RDP to help because i don't have permissions, so most of the support is on call.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 10
    Font - The only time i could talk to the IT director was when we were on a sudden call to talk if we should reduce from 90 days to 60 days the password expiry policy, i told him that was an anti-pattern and won't stop hackers and was making our
    via u/mTbzz
  • 11
    Font - users lazy to use sequence passwords like summer2023, ...2024...2025. He said OK, and proceed to ignore me talk to other admins, the AD is a mess, some offices aren't even in the domain, and everyone is local admin, heck!!! my domain user is local admin in my
    via u/mTbzz
  • 12
    Font - pc, wtf??? no plan for backups, users download stupid sl t, one had GTA San Andreas, you can't even begin to comprehend the absurdity of the company's state, we have more than fifteen versions of FortiClient running in parallel, some even have FC 3.3... it's out of control, a b nb ready to
    via u/mTbzz
  • 13
    Font - explode anytime, as a pentester i was crying... I accepted the fact i was going to be powerless and just did my job as a translator/middleman. Today my country manager tells me i must call ISP to negotiate a new deal and switch completely our whole phone/internet company to save
    via u/mTbzz
  • 14
    Font - money. I told him this is not something IT should be doing, it's the finances team or anyone else's job... Some IT admin from Budapest calls and tells me to just do it, and to get a good price out of them. So here i am with 2 weeks full of meetings with sales reps from ISPs to switch
    via u/mTbzz
  • 15
    Font - our whole network, also he asks me *why* I turn off my work phone at home, he was surprised to hear that I don't bring work home, i bring the phone with me because it's my responsibility but i won't answer any call outside of work hours, he asked me to at least answer Teams or
    via u/mTbzz
  • 16
    Font - emails, and I told him no, why would I answer emails in my personal time? He told me "Let's talk about it later", but I won't yield here, not without some payment rise. Anyways, i can't quit or be fired because for some personal reasons, i need to keep this job for at least a
    via u/mTbzz
  • 17
    Font - year, so wish me luck and patience... At least the payment is not horrible. EDIT: I think i oversimplified the ISP contract part, i never handled negotiation with ISPs before, I know IT draft the requirements of the network, speed, etc... But i wish they at least would tell me the prices we
    via u/mTbzz
  • 18
    Font - want or the upgrade we want, to do more research, they told me our current expenses and that's it. I have to figure out a lot of things to negotiate this deal, one thing i got out of this is that i will learn a lot about phone lines and infrastructure.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 19
    Font - I'm trying my best to answer all the comments, sorry if i miss one. I can't quit the job because it's a requirement i signed. As i said in another comment, i have a "special" situation in EU. I'll do my best at this job propose upgrades, tools and anything that helps... I'll learn
    via u/mTbzz
  • 20
    Font - whatever i need while keeping update with the latest cyber security knowledge, and I'll prioritize my health, that's why i told them i was not going to be on-call outside the working hours in my contract.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 21
    Font - Thank you all for your input, I'm going to take the most of your advice and post an update by the end of the month when i finish my meeting with my country manager and the IT director.
    via u/mTbzz
  • 22
    Font - TheJesusGuy. 1 day ago Jr. Sysadmin Sounds like you walked into hell. ↑ 1.5k Reply Share
    via u/TheJesusGuy
  • 23
    Font - billdietrich1 · 2 days ago Put it all in writing, make sure management is informed of the bad practices and risks and recommendations. 163 Reply Share
    via u/billdietrich1

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management boss workplace-stories-reddit IT-systems ISP-contract it-director sysadmin employees company-systems workplace company quitting it-manager
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